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A

NEW SYSTEM

OF

FRENCH GRAMMAR,

CONTAINING

THE FIRST PART OF THE CELEBRATED GRAMMAR

OF

NOËL AND CHAPSAL.

ARRANGED WITH QUESTIONS, AND A KEY IN ENGLISH.

ALSO,

AN ABRIDGMENT OF THE

SYNTAX AND GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

OF THE SAME AUTHORS.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

LESSONS IN READING AND SPEAKING, FORMS OF
DRAUGHTS, ADVERTISEMENTS, ETC.

DESIGNED TO FACILITATE THE STUDENT IN THE USE OF THE FRENCH LAN
GUAGE, 1ST, BY MAKING IT A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
HIMSELF AND TEACHER. 2D. BY ENABLING HIM TO READ,

WRITE, AND SPEAK IT ON ALL OCCASIONS.

BY SARAH E. SAYMORE.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED

BY C. P. BORDENAVE,

PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES.

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

82 CLIFF STREET.

1851.

EducT 1518.51.595

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON
JANUARY 25, 1924

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

THE French language is extensively studied in the United States, yet it is seldom or never spoken by Americans who have not spent much time either in France or in some of the French provinces. Hence it is no uncommon thing to hear one say, "I read French, I translate French, I know all about French, and yet I cannot speak it, neither do I understand it when I hear it spoken." Alas! the ear, which should give impulse to the tongue, has not been cultivated.

Many of our teachers are good French scholars, and the grammars used in their schools treat of that language; but they are written in English, and only interspersed with French nouns, verbs, &c.; and all explanations are to be made in English, for the Frenchman would find it difficult to communicate, in his own language, to one who has no clew to the meaning of sounds which he has not been accustomed to hear.

The learning of a living language should be commenced with conversation in the language to be learned; and books, which tend to keep up a familiar discourse, should serve as a medium between the teacher and the pupil, that the eye of the latter may first scan the words which he is to understand when he hears them spoken. Thus the ear will accommodate itself to the sounds of the new tongue, the necessity of replying be promptly met, the embarrassment which ever accompanies the first attempts at speaking a for

eign language will be speedily overcome, and the speaker cease to be terrified at the sound of his own voice. A little practice will render the organs of hearing, as well as those of speech, pliant in the use of the foreign dialect as those of the infant boy in under standing and discoursing his mother-tongue. A little practice on the subject of the language itself, and the conversation may soon be extended to other themes.

A book of the kind now offered to the public has long been called for; yet it has not been without the counsel and encouragement of many teachers, both French and American, that I have attempted an enterprise of such magnitude as that of introducing a new system of teaching the French language.

It will readily be perceived that I am indebted to those accomplished grammarians, NOËL and CHAPSAL, for the materials of which this work is composed, and which I have endeavoured to arrange in a manner suited to the wants of teachers and of pupils. To the FIRST PART, which deviates not, except in its adaptation, from the best authorities, I have added a Key in English, which will remove every obstacle to the study of the FRENCH GRAMMAR in the language in which it was originally written.

By many years of experience in teaching, and in the use of lessons in manuscript, which now form a part of this work, I have tested the utility of this arrangement of the French Grammar. Much labour has been bestowed upon it to fit it for the use of American schools, without rendering it less French than when it came from the hands of Noel and Chapsal.

S. E. S.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SECOND EDITION.

THE present form of Noël and Chapsal, with the translation-the only one ever rendered in Englishis now extensively used in London and throughout Great Britain, where it has already gone through several editions. It has been found that, by the help of this work, the teacher from France, with but an imperfect knowledge of the English language, can give lessons with the most perfect accuracy, imparting the true pronunciation in a manner truly admirable and encouraging to the learner, while the English and American find a complete system of conversation, embracing every variety of idiom, in the peculiar and familiar style of conveying instruction in this most popular language of Europe.

From the estimation in which this work is held, and its extensive usefulness in foreign countries, the author, who has recently returned from abroad, is induced to offer a new and improved edition to the American public.

New York, May, 1850.

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